Sometimes the best Christmas gifts don’t come under the tree. That’s certainly the case for fans of the BBC’s long-running space odyssey Doctor Who, which will make its highly-anticipated return on Christmas Day at a yet to be determined time.

This year, in the untitled hour-long episode written by showrunner Steven Moffat, The Doctor will be swapping his favorite red fez for a dusty old top hat in a brand new tale set in Victorian England that will reunite the Time Lord with his cohorts Madame Vastra (Neve McIntosh), Jenny (Catrin Stewart), and Commander Strax (Dan Starkey) from last year’s season 6 episode ‘A Good Man Goes To War.’ Also making her return is actress Jenna-Louise Coleman, who made her surprise debut in this year’s season 7 premiere ‘Asylum of the Daleks.’

In a recent interview with Collider, The Doctor himself, Matt Smith, discussed the Christmas special and the upcoming second half of season 7. While not revealing too much and skillfully dodging questions about whether or not Jenna-Louise Coleman will return as the human-turned-Dalek, Oswin Oswald, Smith said:

“We’ve got the wonderful Richard E. Grant who’s brilliant as a sort of villainous role. We meet the new companion. We’ve got Vastra, Jenny and Strax making a return appearance which is terribly exciting. And it does the sort of wonderful Doctor Who-ey Christmas things – you know, snow, aliens, good will, good cheer, someone trying to take over the world. Hopefully, it makes for good Christmas Day telly.”

Smith also took time to discuss his future on Doctor Who in light of the rumors that he would be leaving the hit sci-fi drama after the conclusion of season 7:

“I take it year by year, you know? See what comes. I love working for Steven Moffat. I love making the show, it’s unlike any job I’ll ever have.

On whether or not he’s worried about being typecast following his tenure on Doctor Who, he said:

“There are bigger things to worry about [than being typecast]. If people want to typecast me, they can. I can sit and have me egg sandwich and not really give a damn about it. It’s up to others.”

As for the remaining 8 episodes of season 7, according to Matt Smith, there’s still about five weeks left of filming and both new and returning monsters await. He also confirmed the return of fantasy author Neil Gaiman as a writer (Gaiman previously wrote last year’s episode ‘The Doctor’s Wife’), saying: “Neil is coming back and I think he’s going to do something brilliantly reinventive, shall we say.”